Forgive Me
by JessenoSabaku
Summary: Shikamaru was tired and he was out of options. He'd been trying to make things up to Chouji and nothing was working—nothing. Shika and Cho. Ino's in it too. Rated K , some mild language, I hope the rating is okay.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Naruto, but it is a great anime/manga and you should definitely buy some volumes and/or DVDs. No money was made—just another fun little idea! Rate and review if you wish, and PM's are always welcome too! Now, without further ado, please enjoy.**

"Damn, Shikamaru, what'd you do?"

"Ugh … Ino …"

"Don't you 'ugh' me! Why is Chouji so upset at you? I asked him about you yesterday and he nearly flew off the handle! I didn't think it was possible for him to get mad at you!"

Shikamaru groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and his thumb, closing his eyes. "Ino, give me a break. I've already gotten the silent treatment from him himself for a week. And besides, I came here to ask for your help anyway." He was tired and he was out of options. He'd been trying to make things up to Chouji and nothing was working—_nothing_. He was in so much trouble that he was prepared to come into the flower shop Ino worked at and if necessary do the unthinkable and grovel at the feet of a woman (it was the ultimate torture in his mind).

"You're in it that deep?"

"It looks like it."

"I could try talking to him … but man, Shikamaru, since you know him the best and even you can't think of anything that will fix this situation I doubt there's much that I can do."

Shikamaru sighed. He'd been prepared for that kind of bad news. But he was willing to try anything now. He hadn't even meant to set the man off … it'd happened completely by accident, but once it had happened, it was over. And it seemed like he was the one taking it the hardest. Chouji was mad as Hell, sure, but it seemed like he didn't care too much otherwise. Ino just seemed to find it amusing, and … if Asuma were still alive, he'd have laughed uneasily and said "You're screwed." The only time he received any kind of companionship in his troublesome dilemma was when he'd told Temari about it while he'd been her guide when she visited the village on some business for a couple days, and she nodded to him with an understanding look.

"For some reason, lately Gaara's been extremely frustrated at me, and I don't know why. He never says anything, but I can tell he's furious, and I've tried everything that's cheered him up before, but nothing's working," she said with a sigh.

He found it amusing that he couldn't find a single person in the whole village who shared in his troubles, but when one woman from Sunagakure comes for a visit she instantly understands fully without need of an explanation.

He left the flower shop angry and even more tired than he was before. His head was hurting and he just wanted things to be done and over with so he could move on. Anything boring and troublesome was at least three times better than the mess he was stuck dealing with.

He had a feeling it was going to be a long day …

**(XXX)**

"Chouji! Hang in there!" Ino screamed over the whirring of a shuriken that just barely missed her head.

Chouji was fighting off a man twice his size—which was really saying something—arms enlarged by the Partial Expansion Jutsu (Note: If I could remember what the Japanese name for it was, I'd put that instead. If you know it, please let me know so I can change it!), holding him at bay just barely. He grunted and heaved and with a huge chakra-enforced push he managed to shove his opponent into a tree, which cracked beneath the weight and force of the impact. Even though he should've been out cold, he got right back up and charged him again.

Ino was trying desperately to ensnare her opponent in one of her jutsu, but there were few that she could even attempt because the target refused to be still, and even when she did try she was rushed and had to dodge before she got hurt.

They'd been ambushed while quietly enjoying the day on a bench overlooking the training field, watching the grass sway in the breeze. Chouji had been munching away on his chips and Ino had picked some nearby flowers, smelling at them. The two didn't even know why they had been attacked in the first place, what the attackers wanted, and how they slipped into the village when supposedly their shinobi were the greatest to be offered. And these guys were _seriously_ a pain—it wasn't so much that they were tough but that they were crafty and just durable enough that they might be able to outlast the two Konoha shinobi.

"I'm getting tired of this!" Ino said, grinding her heels into the ground to slow herself down after being kicked back a long ways. "Chouji, let's show these punks who they're messing with!"

Chouji jumped back to align himself with her and took up an offensive stance. "Right!"

Just as they were about to charge a third figure appeared between the other two and they all nodded at each other in turn. "Let's move out. Our work is done here." Then they all sped off in the other direction.

"Hey! We're not finished with you yet! Get back here!" Ino shrieked, giving chase with Chouji right behind her.

"Wait!" Chouji yelled, skidding to a halt and looking back at the bench. The bag that his chips had been in was wiggling with the slight breeze. "My chips!"

"Chouji let it go! You were almost finished anyway, right?"

"Yeah, but there's still one more chip left in it!"

"Who cares about the chip, those guys are getting away!"

"But what if someone eats it?"

"We're going!"

Ino doubled back and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him with a surprising amount of strength after their attackers. Chouji gave one last longing look towards the bag before he gave in and picked Ino up, and ran at twice the speed she had been pulling him.

The bag containing the final potato chip continued to move slightly on the ground, spinning and lifting up slightly at the opening end. A shadow stretched over it and blocked the wind from disturbing it any more.

"So, this little snack is so important to you?" A voice chuckled. The figure standing over the bag was a fourth and final invader. "Such a thing is becoming of a fat little shit. I think I'll take this with me to rub in your face when you become our captive instead …"

He laughed and bent over, reaching for the discarded bag when he froze in the middle of the motion. "W-what the hell…? I can't move…!"

"You know, 'fat' is such a derogatory term," a voice laced with spikes said from behind him. "It's a taboo here, didn't you know? Now, normally, the 'fat little shit' in question would punish you himself, but you're not getting off that easy. Oh no, he might not be here, but that won't get you a break."

Hands that the attacker could not see curled around his throat and squeezed with a crushing grip, and he wanted to claw at the pressing force and try to ease it up. "Plea-…se…! St-…!" He choked on his own words, panicking and taking in short little gasps more frantically. He couldn't see. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe.

"You listen closely. The minute that you decided to become an intruder upon Konohagakure soil, you lost your right to be free." The grip tightened and all breathing function halted. "But the minute you became cheeky about your duties and used them as an avenue to deface someone's image for your pleasure, whether only in your mind or in front of the world, you lost your right to live. You have shamed everything a shinobi stands for."

The eyes rolled back in the man's head and he was in that moment released, his body limply falling to the ground beside the bag. Another hand reached down and picked up the colorful little object and opened it, brown eyes staring into the silver inside to see one final chip, untouched, unbroken and perfect, like it was meant for something.

Shikamaru carefully tucked the bag under his arm and turned around, starting off. He got about ten steps away before he blinked and said, "Oh yeah." Then he returned to the fallen attacker, hefted him up over his shoulder and walked off again, already complaining about the weight.

**(XXX)**

Chouji had been sulking all day, and it wasn't because he was in a hospital room with multiple injuries and crummy hospital food. Ino, who'd escaped unharmed thanks to Chouji's constant insistence of being the meat-shield (A.K.A. if there was ever an attack she couldn't avoid he would push her out of the way or stand in the path of the blow), told him for about the hundredth time to suck it up.

"We got the guys and now we're heroes!" Ino squawked. "Why are you so bent up over one little potato chip?" Even though Ino knew Chouji long enough to completely understand why, she still couldn't believe that he hadn't stopped whining about it yet.

"But it was the last potato chip! I always save the best for last!" Chouji said with a pout. "And I bet someone picked it up and ate it, or even worse, dishonored it by throwing the bag away without checking inside!"

Ino groaned. "Look, Chouji, there'll be other last potato chips and other times. You've got to move on."

"But there'll never be a potato chip exactly like that one … I salute you, fallen soldier." Chouji saluted to an invisible potato chip and Ino massaged the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.

"Oh brother. Look, I can't stay here any longer because I have some things to do and a shop to run. Shikamaru will be along later to listen to you whine and cheer you up."

"I don't want to have anything to do with Shikamaru! He cannot be forgiven!"

"Why, Chouji? He's your best friend! I mean, Hell, the hospital officials contacted him before they even tried to contact your father!"

"He is my best friend no longer!"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Chouji, you can't just throw away all those years of friendship over whatever idiotic thing happened."

"But it is not idiotic!"

"It doesn't matter! All those times that Shikamaru stepped in to defend you, save you, and pick you up when you were down—you can't wipe all those away just because he made a mistake! Shikamaru isn't a god, he makes errors too, but they're accidents. Merely accidents! So do you really want him to stop being your friend over something that he didn't even mean to have happen?"

"Well …"

"Even if you said yes, he wouldn't accept it. You know him better than that. Friendship comes from both directions, so if you really want to be mad about whatever went wrong and want him to leave you alone, first you'll have to go through the grueling process of making him hate you too. So get over yourself, because I'm tired of watching him go all over the place in ruins over this ridiculousness asking even beggars on the street if they know anything he can try to make you forgive him!"

Ino stomped over to the door, fuming from a long day and the irritation of being stuck as the middleman while Chouji had his little temper-tantrum and Shikamaru looked sadder and more tired than ever. "I'm leaving now. And when I see you tomorrow, I expect for you to have reconciled with your friend, because if I have to hear anymore of this, I am going to …" She took a deep breath to calm herself and turned around, fixing him with a sweet but forced smile. "Anyway, get better!" Then she stormed out of the room.

**(XXX)**

While waiting for Shikamaru to come, Chouji had reflected quite a lot on their friendship, and as he did, he found that this "unforgivable thing" that threatened to tear them apart had become something very small in comparison. He remembered all the times before when he'd been stuck in the hospital that while Ino brought him fruits and vegetables and told him that he needed to eat healthy foods, Shikamaru would know just how to sneak in some chips or a little box of grilled meats, even though said lazy shinobi would tell him plainly that unless he ate his fruits and his vegetables he would stop bringing him treats. Chouji also remembered how Shikamaru had helped him see that he didn't have to simply accept people's discrimination against his weight and should instead fight it by being the best that he could be and proving everyone wrong, instead of being submissive—and that was merely because Shikamaru hung around him and the most he'd say about his weight was that it didn't matter. If he stayed heavy for the rest of his life, it didn't matter to Shikamaru—the reason he was his friend was because of what was inside, and he meant inside the heart, not what some might obnoxiously claim to be "clogged arteries," etc.

Did Chouji really want to lose the Shikamaru that had a whole different side when it was just the two of them eating chips on the rooftop, looking at the clouds? Did he really want to be alone again and risk becoming submissive and losing all of his friends? Was it really worth the trouble, like Ino had said before, to have to go through the process of making Shikamaru hate him to completely cut him off? He would definitely have to at some point or another if he was going to continue giving his friend the cold shoulder, or else their relationship might turn into one like that of Naruto and Sasuke's, and that did not seem very appealing.

He sighed and scratched his head, wondering if maybe he'd been much too harsh after all. He also began to wonder if Shikamaru was ever going to come, or if he'd just given up on him somehow.

There was a knock on his door and the nurse's voice came from the other side. "Akimichi-san, you have a visitor." The door swung open and she stepped inside and to the side as the guest walked through.

"Shikamaru," Chouji said in acknowledgement.

"Chouji," Shikamaru replied. The door closed and the nurse was gone, starting back down the hall.

There was an awkward silence in the room, so Chouji tried to start up a conversation. "So, what took you so long? Fall asleep on your dinner plate again?"

"That only happened once," Shikamaru said seriously and sharply. For a moment Chouji thought he'd said the wrong thing but then he saw him smile and he grinned widely as well. "Actually, I had my hands full with some unexpected work."

"Yeah?"

"Turned out there was an intruder you and Ino missed."

"Crap. Where is he?"

"Locked up. I caught him. The initial capture was fairly easy, but later on when we were trying to get him into a prison cell we had a little more trouble."

"Well, that's good. I really hated those guys! What did they want, anyway?"

"They're being interrogated as we speak. I think we can trust that Ibiki will get us some information."

"I want to interrogate them myself!"

"I'll bet so. I heard you and Ino were ambushed."

"Yeah. We were just sitting on a bench minding our own business. I had a really good bag of chips, and right when I got to the last chip they jumped us! We had to leave it behind because the guys ran off, and Ino doesn't understand why it's a big deal. I mean, for all I know, somebody could've eaten it or thrown it away by now! I'll never get to know what that last chip tasted like!"

"Never?"

"Never! Every final chip is unique!"

"Well, Chouji, is this your chip?"

Shikamaru brandished a bag from behind his back and reached in, gently pulling out one lone chip, not even so much as a crack on it.

Chouji reached for it and held it between his two meaty hands. "Could it be…?"

"It is," Shikamaru assured him, sitting down in a seat next to the hospital bed. "And later when Ino comes back, we can tell her you were right. The guy I locked up was near the bag, and I think he was planning to taunt you with it."

"Hah! I knew it! Ino will have to admit she was wrong!"

Shikamaru laughed. "She sure will."

"… Shikamaru?"

"Yeah?"

"… I forgive you. Ino was right. A chip is a silly thing to get mad over."

"That's not true. Any chip can be special. After all, didn't the first chips that we had when we became friends taste all the better just because of the occasion?"

"Yeah … but you're more important to me than a potato chip. So I don't want to be mad at you anymore."

"But the fact that you go nuts over the last chip is something that makes you who you are. And besides, just because it's a different chip in a different moment doesn't mean it's not just as special. After all, it had to be _some _kind of special if it brought along all of this, right?"

"Well … yeah, I guess you're right!"

"So I'm the one who's sorry. I know that those kinds of things are important to you, so from now on I'll be more careful than ever. That way you can always have the last bite."

Chouji grinned and popped the chip into his mouth, munching happily. Shikamaru just smiled and watched as things went their course and the whole incident was forgotten, replaced by a bunch of little anecdotes about their day. He didn't think he'd be telling anyone anytime soon the real reason why Chouji had gotten so mad at him for his sake. Ino had already obviously chewed him out, and while it might be understandable, he didn't want Chouji getting that from everyone else over a problem that had already been resolved. Putting that aside, for Shikamaru, ever since he'd accidentally eaten the last of the potato chips that Chouji had left at his house (which he'd mistaken for chips that had come from his own cupboard) they'd sat like rocks in his stomach for days after they had made their way out of his system, and he didn't care whether it was a stupid thing to get mad over or not, it had made everything go to hell for a whole week, and he would _not_ let that happen a second time, much less have any mention of said event later.

He swore then and there that for the purpose of being able to continue having happy moments like these … he was never going to eat another potato chip ever again.


End file.
